Stand Up Guys [2012] ★½

Excuse my sarcasm but why in hell do Studios always choose January to bury their misfires? They must think we won’t notice, distracted by award season and all. But we do, especially when it’s a film starring legendary actors Al Pacino and Christopher Walken. I’m talking about “Stand Up Guys”, a sorry excuse of a movie about a trio of old guys coming out of retirement for one last roll of the dice. See these guys had me fooled for a second. I mean Pacino, Walken and Alan Arkin together in one movie? I had to see this. But truth be told, they don’t really act here. They just sleepwalk through the whole movie. OK, maybe it’s fun to watch Al Pacino just being on screen again. But that one terrific scene in “Scent of a Woman” is worth more than 90 minutes of watching him trade on our admiration instead of serving it. I’m guessing it’s the pressure of an idiot script and understandably clueless direction from Fisher Stevens that forces Pacino to ham it up so vigorously that you want to slap him in the face and tell him to wake the fuck up. Ultimately, “Stand Up Guys” is one of January’s cinematic casualties that could cure an audience of insomniacs. I know I was.